Pixel art is very retro, but a Kickstarter project promises to bring it up-to-date with a Bluetooth connected LED display.
The idea is very simple: take either a 32x32 or 15x32 RGB LED array and wrap it in a nice frame so that it can be hung on a wall. The result is Pixel which has already exceeded its $8000 target on Kickstarter. .
The resolution may be low, but what you can achieve with it looks really good - perhaps because the resolution is so low. A proximity sensor in the frame lets you code up interactive displays and, as the code is open source, you can even modify it for your special projects. It isn't a crazy price either, at $196 for a 32x32 device. However, it is suggested that you set aside $800 or so to buy pixel art from the featured artists - which even for a work of great digital art seems a little high.
The best way to see what it is all about is to watch the video:
At the moment the software is only available for Android but the team is a bit apologetic about not supporting iOS just yet.
The idea of putting the display behind a two-way mirror and flashing messages and images seems particularly appealing. The hardware is based on an IOIO Mint board and a Bluetooth Dongle and there seems to be plenty of scope for expansion:
A job at Google - who wouldn't leap at the chance. In this movie, being released in June, two recently laid off 40-something salesmen have got an interview for an internship at Google that might in tu [ ... ]
If the Internet of Things is ever going to take off, we need cheap connected computing devices. The miniSWARM is only $20 and it's a WiFi mesh-connected Arduino - and that's just a start.
